Tom Porter-Brown, Socialist Students activist at Birmingham City University
The University and College Union (UCU) branch at Birmingham City University (BCU) has begun strike action in reaction to the attacks by the vice chancellor (VC). A planned ‘restructure’ includes 36 academic staff redundancies.
The VC claims that his changes are to benefit students, but how is it in students’ interests when staff suffer job cuts, students are crammed into lecture rooms, and courses are at risk of closure?
It’s no coincidence that the VC chose to announce his plans at the end of February, because the time it took for the union to jump through all the hoops of the Tory anti-trade union laws means the strike has begun during exam season. Members think this is a deliberate move to try to cut across students supporting staff. He’s even gone as far as sending a mass email to students, telling us that “only 9% of staff have voted to go on strike and it should have a minimal impact on lectures”.
He’s got that figure by counting all BCU staff, including, for example, caterers and cleaners, but has neglected to mention that not every staff member is part of UCU! Although the VC’s bending of the truth could come back to haunt him when students don’t get their grades back in time, and no doubt he’ll contradict himself and blame it on the striking lecturers.
UCU had a good first picket, staying for hours until the rally at lunchtime. At least 50 staff, students and supporters, including Socialist Students and Socialist Party members, turned up.
Union members need student support, which several of them expressed, discussing with each other the best way to communicate the issue to their students. Socialist Students members are campaigning to help build that support.
Socialist Party members discussed anti-austerity and anti-war ideas with strikers. If Keir Starmer and his Labour government can afford massive military budgets, they can afford to plug the funding deficit in universities. We talked about how the unions need a political voice, a new workers’ party, to fight for that to happen, and that universities need staff and students in control of the funding and resources to run it for the sake of education instead of profit.
